Planning For A Weekly EpicureanFriends Zoom Meeting in 2022

One project I would like to see us tackle for 2022 is to have a weekly video Zoom meeting for our regulars here at the forum. Let's use this thread to brainstorm the possibilities:

1. Day and Time. At times in the past when this has been discussed, I think the consensus tends toward a weekday evening, probably Sunday through Thursday nights, and probably no later than about 8:30 or 9:00 East Coast USA time so that our friends on the West Coast have a reasonable late-afternoon / early-evening hour. Tentatively I would suggest Tuesdays at 8:30 for no reason in particular. Please let us know your suggestions for alternate dates and times.
2. Participants. I think the consensus is that we would like to use this to introduce new members into the group and talk about initial questions about the philosophy, so I suggest that we make the existence of the group public, but that we require some level of participation on the forum before invitations are extended. Conversations on the forum (and on Facebook) are visible to the public, so there's plenty of opportunity for people who solely want to lurk to participate in writing, and anyone interested enough in participating in a zoom meeting ought to be willing to say so on the forum so as to be sent an invitation.
3. Video / Sound. Unless someone has a special reason lets strongly urge each participant to use video, but not necessarily real names unless the participant prefers that on an individual basis.
4. Agenda / topics. We want to devote some time to questions and open discussion, but we don't want every session to turn into a general "bull" session. We can use the Principal Doctrines and Vatican Sayings as an initial topic list for at least some part of each meeting. It would also be good to ask participants to bring up for discussion any Epicurean books or materials that they are currently reading for discussion. And most of all I would like to see us devote time to what we are doing online (primarily in EpicureanFriends makes sense, of course) so we can coordinate our online activity there and in other locations. So that we are always focused on Epicurean philosophy, in general it would be best for discussion of books written by non-Epicurean writers to be limited to times when it's clear we have extra time on the zoom meeting. It also probably makes sense to have a time limit for the meetings, probably not much longer than an hour.
5. Moderators. If we go to weekly there are likely to be times when I cannot be present myself, though I hope that will be rare. For that reason we probably ought to have a moderation "panel" to lead the discussion in the event I am away (and this is a good idea even if I am present - we could rotate among panel discussion leaders from week to week but keep things on track by having a pre-planned agenda.)
6. Name: Maybe someone has something more creative than "The Weekly EpicureanFriends Zoom Meeting."
7. First Event: First week of January 2022.
8. Expectations: We have to expect that for the first weeks and even months we will have only a few people, but I suspect that over time we'll find that a certain segment of people on EpicureanFriends and even from the Facebook group will become regulars who prefer Zoom to posting in written form.

I understand your concern Don but I think it's a matter of individual preference. Those who wish to attend will do so, those who don't won't.

I definitely agree that many of these points apply to how we do the 20th.

But as to whether this would help or hurt a connection with the real Epicureans of the past, I think that the authentic ones of the Greco Roman period were likely immersed in each other's company most of the time.

As for those in the intervening centuries who saw the topic as one limited to being fit for writing and thinking about the subject - I don't see them as very worthy models for emulation. I would always have advocated that the goal be full restoration of a philosophical community and continuity.

If we find the philosophy inviting then it's something to pursue as strongly as possible, and if this helps only a few who want to invest more time in it then it's probably worthwhile for those.

No issues as to wet blankets! Caution is a good thing.

I received a private comment asking if we would be able or willing to post the audio publicly for others to listen to. That question raises several issues we can include in the discussion. As it is, I spend a lot of time editing the Lucretius Podcast to cut out the silent sections and any unproductive tangents, and I doubt that I would have the time to do that fora second program. I do see the desirability of allowing others to listen, but I don't know that we can assure the kind of quality that would make that work without editing. We can discuss that as part of planning, and some of my concerns might be alleviated if we split the duties and had others besides me curate a section of time.

Quote from Kalosyni

After all, how does one determine if someone is a devotee? or a sage?

Maybe that depends on how much a person likes to think of themselves as an ancient Greek!

More seriously maybe we just have some kind of basic reading list "test" and trust people to rank themselves by how much they have read.

But even more practically, we probably just need to keep something of a tight reign from the beginning using moderators, and then as we see how people actually do over time the moderators can allocate time based on subjective views of how much people are actually contributing. That might sound harsh but it's probably necessary and we can find ways to do it diplomatically and supportively.

If we primarily use the invitation method of vetting participants we will probably be ok because we should be able to tell beforehand if we are running into any problem personalities.

As for the free time requirement we probably need to find ways to structure this so that for most of us we don't find it a burden or something we need to spend much time in preparation for or editing anything afterward.

You are being ambitious but that is the only way to grow! When we stop adding / replacing atoms we start to die......( I am pretty sure is somewhere in Lucretius! )

But ambition is good! ( I say as I listen to Rienzi and read the book on which it is based )

Ha -- "the telos of Epicureanfriends.com"

I would describe that as a combination of the attitude of (1) Lucian in "striking a blow for Epicurus" and pursuing the attitude exhibited in "Alexander the Oracle-Monger" and of (2) Lucretius in using smart technology (his poem, our internet) to present the full meaning of Epicurean philosophy in its most fundamental form.

Sometimes I also think it can be expressed in thinking about how Epicurean philosophy differs as much from what is conveyed by "hedonism" as the stoics would say they differ from "stoicism." They deny that they are apathetic, and I would deny that a narrow focus on immediate physical gratification has much of anything to do with Epicurean philosophy.

Epicurus taught a full worldview, in which "pleasure" is only one part, and not what is generally conveyed by "hedonism" at all. As I see it, Epicurus used "pleasure" as a catch-all term for all agreeable feelings, mental and bodily, and on that level "pleasure" is a sweeping term that corresponds to and opposes "virtue" (as that is set up by the stoics and platonists) and "piety" (as that is set up by all those religions who suggest we should worship supernatural gods).

I think that's what both Lucian and Lucretius saw - a full worldview - and that really has very little to do with strategies for eating and drinking and relaxing. Those are significant but secondary to the deeper issues of where we spend eternity, whether we have free will, whether we need to worry about heaven and hell, and how to understand what knowledge is and our means of obtaining it, and how we organize our lives to attain maximum success in pursuing happiness through a proper understanding of (and action based on) those issues.